Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages Saturday, the latest in a series of exchanges agreed to in a deal aimed at ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group.
French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Yarden Bibas, 35, were handed over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being returned to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel, 65, was released hours later at the Gaza City seaport.
Bibas was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel along with his wife, Shiri, and their two young boys, Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2. The fate of his family is uncertain.
Siegel, originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with his wife, Aviva Siegel. Aviva Siegel was released during a brief ceasefire in November 2023.
Kalderon was captured by the militants from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his two children. His ex-wife, Hadas Kalderon, was also taken captive but was released with their children during the 2023 hostage exchange.
Israel had agreed to release 90 prisoners on Saturday, the fourth such exchange. But a Palestinian advocacy group said that number had been updated to 183, expected to be freed later in the day.
Hamas released eight hostages, including three Israelis and five Thai nationals, on Thursday. Later in the day, Israel released 110 Palestinian prisoners, including 32 serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
With the ceasefire deal in place, more than 423,000 Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza. The Israeli military ordered them out of the territory in the earliest stages of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
At a news conference Friday in Geneva, the U.N.’s World Food Program provided an update on efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. Country Director Antoine Renard told reporters the agency has delivered more than 32,000 metric tons of food into Gaza since the ceasefire agreement began on Jan. 19.
He said that amount was more than twice what was delivered in December and three times what was delivered in October. Renard said the WFP has reached 300,000 people so far.
Meanwhile, during a visit to Lebanon on Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, called for a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon.
Following talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Abdelatty told reporters, "Egypt is very keen on confirming the need for a full and complete Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, without taking away a single inch of Lebanese sovereignty and territory."
Under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal announced Nov. 27, Israeli forces were to withdraw from southern Lebanon, and the militant group Hezbollah was to move north of the Litani River by January 26. Like Hamas, Hezbollah is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
Israeli forces have remained in more than a dozen villages past the deadline. The United States and Lebanon announced Sunday the deadline to meet the ceasefire terms had been extended to Feb. 18.
Since the ceasefire began, Israel has conducted near-daily operations in southern Lebanon, including airstrikes and shelling. They accuse Hezbollah of violating ceasefire terms by attempting to move weapons.
In statements posted to its social media accounts, the Israel Defense Forces reported overnight Thursday its fighter jets launched several attacks against what it said were Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa region, which it said "posed a threat to the Israeli home front and IDF forces."
The IDF statement said the targets included a military site "with underground infrastructure for the development and production of weapons and transit infrastructure on the Syrian-Lebanon border" through which, the IDF said, Hezbollah was trying to transfer weapons.
The IDF also reported Friday that its elite Sayeret Haruv fighting unit has, for the past nine days, been conducting an operation to "thwart terrorism" in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
In a report on its website, the IDF said the fighters "eliminated terrorists in clashes and made numerous arrests. They located weapons, exposed and destroyed more than five bomb laboratories." The Sayeret Haruv unit specializes in operations in the West Bank as well as Gaza.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
